I came to Nashville with Kris and Des on a Girl’s Trip in November, 2021. We had a blast walking all over the city. I also think we saw every sweet shop there is. Dave and I only had two days in the city, so we condensed it quite a bit, but got the walking in and ate some amazing food!
We stayed at a pretty nice RV park called Nashville North. A little out of the way and close to the freeway (noisy at times) but well run. Nice showers! It is becoming very obvious to us how many people are living in these parks full time as a cheaper way to get housing. But I don’t think RVs are even made as well as mobile home trailers, so it cannot be pleasant to live in them full time when you aren’t wandering around seeing new things! Although we have met many full timers as we travel around, but they often get new trailers every 5-7 years. These things are not made well for sure!
Back to Nashville! It is hard to find parking in the city, and very pricey. We wanted to go to the Tennessee History Museum so we figured out we could park there for free and walk everywhere else. Phew- 6 mile day. We started by going to one of my top breakfast places ever – Biscuit Love in the Gulch. OMG! Bonuts! And brown sugar lemonade. And their bacon….yep. It is amazing. Then we went and walked Broadway but there was a lot of construction and many bars did not have a band playing yet – we were too early. So the vibe wasn’t there. Neither were the crowds! Important when you are as short as I am! Afterwards we went to the Assembly Food Court and had Velvet Tacos – well, Dave had tacos and I had elote corn dip. Sigh…. So good. Then we walked to the Capitol building but found out they don’t really have anything to see so that was a lot of stairs for not much. Yes, it did help burn off the breakfast and lunch! So we headed back to the car by passing through the city Farmer’s Market (not impressed) and then the History Museum. It is a really good, very thorough museum of Tennessee. Starts with the geology of the area (Tennessee is very wide and encompasses two time zones for example), then the indigenous peoples, the Revolutionary War and the Trail of Tears following that time, the rise of the cotton and sugar cane fields using slaves, the Civil War and the following conversion away from slaves. 275,000 slaves were freed in Tennessee with the Emancipation Proclamation! The state is not that big! So there were many people suddenly freed but not really ready for it but it seems like there were communities set up. They were definitely segregated and the Klan was around etc. Jim Crow. The whole reconstruction era was full bloom in Tennessee.
Naturally, we also took a day to go to the Ryman Auditorium ( one of my favorite museums!) because it has so much history. It is called the Mother Church of country music, but really it also is quite involved in bluegrass and rock. Apparently the acoustics are amazing. Then we finished our time in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry! I truly enjoy the interaction with the performers; a little disappointed that we had mainly older stars. Whe Des, Kris and I came it was more evenly split. But such great performances by Mark Wills, Pam Tillus, Jeannie Seely, Vince Gill and a couple of song writers playing their music for writers appreciation week or something. T. Graham Brown was inducted into the Opry and that was touching too. It was even better because the people sitting next to me on the pew didn’t show up so I had some space.
I am very glad that we got to visit Nashville even if it was a little short of a time frame. It was good for us since we really aren’t into drunk crowds of people. And the Predators (hockey) were playing a sixth, do or die, game right in the middle of town so that made it worse. And Morgan Wallen was playing at Nissan Stadium right there. Phew – I definitely recommend the Ryman and Grand Ole Opry if you get a chance to go to Nashville!